Today, I got yelled at by the lifeguard

But first, some background. The pool was awkwardly silent this morning. No one else was swimming besides me (which, ok, yeah it’s 6am but there are usually 1 or 2 other people in lanes next to me) and the lifeguard who usually puts on music when I hit the deck, didn’t. Oh well, on to my swim!

I did some speed work, really focusing on my form. 9 hard 100s (freestyle) later, I started doing breaststroke to change it up a bit. I could see out of my peripheral that the lifeguard was walking alongside my lane. It wasn’t weird because I’ve asked him to critique my form a few times before, so I figured he was just doing that again today. After 1 lap, he stopped me to tell me my breaststroke form was all wrong. He tried to explain what I need to do differently and then I pushed off from the wall to try again.

I wasn’t even half way down the lane when I heard him (through the water!) shouting. I popped up out of the water at the wall and there he was, straight up drill sergeant form, yelling about how I’m all sorts of awkward and still not doing it right. It was INTENSE. I knew he was yelling out of passion and not to belittle me, but it was really funny because there I was, bobbing in the water with no one else in the pool, and this lifeguard was yelling at me.

In his defense, I hadn’t taken his advice. So the next lap I took, I made sure to execute perfection. He gave me the approving head-nod when I finished, and I hopped out of the pool.

As I was walking out, he intercepted me and apologized for his intensity. I just laughed and told him I honestly appreciate all his advice and critique. For realz, if it weren’t for him, I’d probably still be floundering in the water or have some sort of shoulder injury.

Hey, I wandered over from Sarah’s blog. I’m pretty sure I know which lifeguard you mean; he’s super intense all the time. But all my strokes got way better over the summer when he was coaching masters. Just this morning he was grumbling about someone’s breast stroke before he made her move to the other pool for masters class, hee hee. (Maybe it was you? Sometimes it’s hard to recognize people with different gear on.)
…aaaand, back to the lab!
-Allison